Motor assembly

ABSTRACT

A motor is accommodated with some clearance in a tubular housing axially spaced end portions of which respectively extend beyond the motor. A pair of mounting elements are provided each being located at one of the end portions and each including a ring portion secured to the housing and having a diameter slightly larger than the motor and a pair of arms of one piece with the ring portion and each semi-circularly curved circumferentially of the housing and having a free end. Cooperating fastening portions are provided on the free ends and on the motor for fastening the latter to the mounting elements.

D United States Patent 1151 3,666,21 9 Baus 14 1 May 30, 1972 [541 MOTORASSEMBLY 3,3 1 7,166 5/1967 Janssen ..248 35& R [72] Inventor: HeinzBans, Am Oberen Luisenparlc 28, FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONSMannheim, Germany 481,970 3/1938 Great Britain ..85/8.8 I 24! 717,8579/1965 Canada 5243/ [2 n Appl- 92,441 656,930 1/1965 Belgium ....248/l85l9,687 6/l933 Germany ..248/26 [30] Foreign Application Prim! PrimaryExaminerMarion Parsons, Jr.

Dec 1, 1969 Germany ..P 19 601 97.9 AHOmPyMiChad Striker 52 us. 01..248/l5, 248/18. 310/91 ABSTRACT [51] Cl F16! 5/04 A motor isaccommodated with some clearance in a tubular [58] new of Send 1 2 6housing axially spaced end portions of which respectively ex. /8 0/ 5]tend beyond the motor. A pair of mounting elements are provided eachbeing located at one of the end portions and each [56] References Citedincluding a ring portion secured to the housing and having a UNITEDSTATES PATENTS diameter slightly larger than the motor and a parrot armsof I one piece with the ring portion and each semi-circularly Frankllncurved circumferentially of the housing and having a free end 1 1 7/ I955 Lundgm" "85/83 Cooperating fastening portions are provided on thefree ends 2. 5/1960 Copeland and on the motor for fastening the latterto the mounting ele 3,145,910 8/1964 .1611 ....248 18 mm 3 233,4972/l966 McC0rmick.. .....85/8.8 3,246,836 4/1966 Ayling ..248/l 5 10Claims, 3 Drawing Figures MOTOR ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thepresent invention relates generally to a motor assembly, and moreparticularly to a motor assembly for utilizing small motors.

In certain applications, motors, especially small motors such as areused in ventilators or the like, are to be mounted in a tubular housing.For this it is known from the prior art to use mounting elements in fonnof semi-circular arms two of which are associated with each end of themotor and are fastened radially outwardly on the motor itself, beingalso connected to the tubular housing. The distance in transversedirection between the free ends of the respectively associated two armsis approximately equal to the diameter of the motor itself, which meansthat if the radial width of the arms is taken into account, the diameterof the entire assembly is approximately triple that of the motor itself.In many applications, however, this is undesirable for various reasons,including the obvious one that insufficient space may be available forsuch a large assembly. It is therefore often desirable to reduce theoverall diameter of the assembly, an approach which is impossible tocarry out in the known prior-art construction beyond a certain limit,because the vibration damping effect of the motor mounting elementsutilized in that construction is based upon the requirement that thearms be able to oscillate within the housing with a certain amplitude.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, an object of the presentinvention to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages ofthe prior art.

More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to providean improved motor assembly of the general type under discussion, whichmay have a smaller diameter than what is known from the art without,however, being any less effective and efficient in its primary purposethan the prior-art constructions.

A concomitant object of the invention is to provide such an improvedmotor assembly which is simple in its construction and can be readilyassembled and disassembled.

In pursuance of the above objects, and others which will become apparenthereafter, one feature of the invention resides in a motor assemblywhich comprises, briefly stated, a motor and a tubular housingsurrounding the motor with clearance and having axially spaced endportions which respectively extend beyond the motor. A pair of mountingelements are each provided at one of the end portions and each include aring portion secured to the housing and having a diameter slightlylarger than the motor, and a pair ofarms of one piece therewith and eachsemi-circularly curved circumferentially of the housing and having afree end. Cooperating fastening portions are provided on the free endsand on the motor for mounting the latter on the former.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theinvention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is an axial section taken online II of FIG. 2 and showing an embodiment of the invention, with onearm being illustrated only fragmentarily for the sake ofclarity;

FIG. 2 is a bottom-plan view of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a side-elevational view of an assembly embodying theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing indetail, it will be seen that FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a single motormounting element for purposes of explanation. It is composed of a ringportion 2 and two arms 4 and 16 of which is of one piece with the ringportion 2 and is semi-circularly curved. The arms are preferably, butnot necessarily, of substantially L-shaped cross section and areprovided on their free ends with portions 6 and 12, respectively, whichcarry coupling or fastening projections 8 and 14, respectively. It ispointed out that in FIG. 1 the arm l6which is visible in FIG. 2has beenomitted for the sake of clarity, only the portion 12 having beenillustrated to show its relationship with reference to the portion 6.

The projections 8 and 14 interengage for mounting purposes incorresponding openings provided in the motor 10 shown in FIG. 3.

As seen in FIG. 2, the radial width of the arms 4 and 16 decreases inthe direction from their connected ends-that is where they are connectedwith the ring portion 2to their free ends and the portions 6 and 12,respectively. The purpose of this is to make it possible for the arms todampen various different frequencies of motor vibrations. The axialextension of the arms 4 and 16, that is their thickness in axialdirection of the ring portion 2, may also decrease, and in any case itis advantageous if it is less than their radial width.

As shown in FIG. 3, a motor 10 is accommodated in the housing H and ismounted on two mounting elements of the type shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Oneof these mounting elements has the ring portion 2 as identified beforein FIGS. 1 and 2 and is provided with the an'ns 4 and 6. The othermounting element is similar to the first one and has a ring portion 18provided with the arms 20 and 22. The free ends of the arms are againprovided with the fastening portions, as illustrated, and theseinterengage with corresponding openings provided in the motor 10. Thering portions 2 and 18 are of course secured to the housing in theillustrated manner.

The arms, of which each ring portion has two, are of one part with therespective ring portion as illustrated in particular in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The roblem which the present invention solves, namely to make itpossible to reduce the radial dimension of motor assemblies of the typeunder discussion, is found particularly in radiaLfIow blowers, but theinvention is of course applicable in other areas also. Explaining thepurposes and advantages of the present invention with respect toradial-flow blowers, it is pointed out that here it is desirable tolocate the motor within the tubular air-guidance housing. Especially ifthis type of blower is used for ventilating electronic equipment, thehousing must have a small diameter because of the small amount of spacewhich is available for its installation. The invention is, however, alsoapplicable to other types of constructions, for instance in largerradial-flow blowers or others which may for instance be mounted in anouter wall of a building above the windows thereof for providingventilation of rooms or the like.

As the drawing shows in FIG. 3, the diameter of the respective ringportion is only slightly smaller than the diameter of the motor itself,and according to the invention, the ring portion and its associated armsis made of elastically yieldable synthetic plastic material of whichvarious types are suitable. In particular, thermoplastic synthetics havebeen found especially advantageous, such as polyvinylchlon'de, styrolmixed polymerisate, styrol acrylnitrile copolymerisate or a condensationproduct of epsilon-aminocapron acid. Utilizing synthetic plasticmaterial has been found especially advantageous for vibration-dampingpurposes, and particularly more so than highly elastic material such asmetal which is known from the prior art. On the other hand, by havingthe free end portions of the respective arms connected at the axial endsof the motor, radial securing of the arms to the motor is unnecessaryand this of course saves space in radial direction. Moreover, bysecuring the free ends of the arms at the axial ends of the m0- tor, andthus necessarily having the ring portion axially spaced from the motor,assures that the arms will undergo not only bending stresses but alsotorsional stresses-contrary to what is known from the artwhereby it ispossible to make the diameter of the ring portionwhich is simply pushedinto the tubular housing-only slightly smaller than the diameter of themotor itself.

The mounting elements may be mass produced by injection molding or thelike because they are of one piece, and are therefore inexpensive. Anadditional advantage of the construction according to the presentinvention is the fact that it requires no screw or other connections forsecuring the mounting elements to the motor.

It is particularly advantageous in terms of obtaining highly effectivevibration damping if the general plane of the respective ring portion isaxially spaced from the general plane in which the fastening portions onthe associated arms are located, by a distance which is smaller thanhalf the transverse distance between the fastening portions on theassociated arms. In this manner, the torsion-spring characteristic ofthe anns is most advantageously utilized and axial displacement of themotor due to vibrations is counteracted in such a manner that the radialdimensioning of the mounting elements can be particularly small.

It is advantageous, according to the present invention, if thetransverse distance between the mounting portions on the free ends ofthe two arms on their respective mounting element is approximately equalto the diameter of the motor itself because this has been foundadvantageous in dampening vibrations of the motor tending to tilt thesame about an axis normal to the axis of the motor, in that suchdimensioning makes the construction of the respective mounting elementsmore stable. Also, this measure makes it possible to reduce the radialdimensions of the respective mounting elements.

As already pointed out before, tapering the thickness of the respectivearms in direction from their connected ends to their free ends, that isto the motor connected therewith, provides for advantageous damping inthe various frequency ranges. This also counteracts excessive vibrationsof the motor which would make necessary a greater radial dimensioning ofthe motor mounting elements in order to prevent contacting of thevibrating motor with the tubular housing. As already pointed out, it isadvantageous to make the cross section of the arms substantiallyL-shaped, but generally speaking, it may be angular. Advantageously, thethickness of the arms as seen in axial direction of the respective ringportions, is smaller than their radial dimension.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful applica tion in other types ofconstructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in amotor assembly, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown,since various modifications and structural changes may be made withoutdeparting in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis. the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can by applying current knowledgereadily adapt it for various applications without omitting featuresthat, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essentialcharacteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this inventionand, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to becomprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of thefollowing claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims.

1. A motor assembly, comprising a motor; a tubular housing surroundingsaid motor with clearance and having axially spaced end portions whichrespectively extend beyond said motor; a pair of mounting elements eachprovided at one of said end portions and each including a ring portionsecured to said housing and having a diameter slightly larger than saidmotor, and a pair of arms of one piece therewith and eachsemi-circularly curved circumferentially of said housing and having afree end; and cooperating fastening portions on said free ends and saidmotor for mounting the latter on the former.

2. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein each of said freeends is provided with at least one of said fastening portions.

3. A motor assembly as defined in claim 2, wherein said fasteningportions on said free ends are transversely spaced from one another by adistance corresponding substantially to the diameter of said motor.

4. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein said mountingelements are of elastically yieldable synthetic plastic material.

5. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, each of said arms also havinga connected end circumferentially spaced from the respective free end;and wherein the thickness of said arms decreases from the respectiveconnected end to the associated free end.

6. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein the thickness of saidarms in axial direction of the respective mounting elements is smallerthan the width of said arms in radial direction of the respectiveelement.

7. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein each free end of therespective arms of each element is provided with at least one of saidfastening elements, with the latter being located in a general plane atleast substantially parallelling the general plane of the associatedring portion and axially spaced from the same by a distance at mostapproaching half the distance between said fastening elements.

8. A motor assembly as defined in claim 4, wherein said syntheticplastic material is a thermoplastic material.

9. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein said arms are ofsubstantially L-shaped cross section.

10. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein said fasteningportions comprise coupling projections on said free ends, and recessesprovided in said motor and each adapted for receiving one of saidcoupling projections in interlocking relationship.

1. A motor assembly, comprising a motor; a tubular housing surroundingsaid motor with clearance and having axially spaced end portions whichrespectively extend beyond said motor; a pair of mounting elements eachprovided at one of said end portions and each including a ring portionsecured to said housing and having a diameter slightly larger than saidmotor, and a pair of arms of one piece therewith and eachsemi-circularly curved circumferentially of said housing and having afree end; and cooperating fastening portions on said free ends and saidmotor for mounting the latter on the former.
 2. A motor assembly asdefined in claim 1, wherein each of said free ends is provided with atleast one of said fastening portions.
 3. A motor assembly as defined inclaim 2, wherein said fastening portions on said free ends aretransversely spaced from one another by a distance correspondingsubstantially to the diameter of said motor.
 4. A motor assembly asdefined in claim 1, wherein said mounting elements are of elasticallyyieldable synthetic plastic material.
 5. A motor assembly as defined inclaim 1, each of said arms also having a connected end circumferentiallyspaced from the respective free end; and wherein the thickness of saidarms decreases from the respective connected end to the associated freeend.
 6. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein the thickness ofsaid arms in axial direction of the respective mounting elements issmaller than the width of said arms in radial direction of therespective element.
 7. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1, whereineach free end of the respective arms of each element is provided with atleast one of said fastening elements, with the latter being located in ageneral plane at least substantially parallelling the general plane ofthe associated ring portion and axially spaced from the same by adistance at most approaching half the distance between said fasteningelements.
 8. A motor assembly as defined in claim 4, wherein saidsynthetic plastic material is a thermoplastic material.
 9. A motorassembly as defined in claim 1, wherein said arms are of substantiallyL-shaped cross section.
 10. A motor assembly as defined in claim 1,wherein said fastening portions comprise coupling projections on saidfree ends, and recesses provided in said motor and each adapted forreceiving one of said coupling projections in interlocking relationship.